So last week was "exciting" -- we had an earthquake. Shook up the east coast, made most west coasters chuckle. Then we had a hurricane. Mostly flooding damage and yes some people died. But, not many and the destruction was not nearly as bad as it could have been.

The problem? Now everyone is saying the reaction to the coming storm was an overreaction. (TV coverage is a whole different story.) They're complaining about how excited we got over the earthquake.

Why was there so little destruction from that quake? Why was their so little death from that hurricane?

Because we had building codes that require our buildings to be built to stand up to that. Because we have bridges and roads that are required to be built to allow for water and earthquakes alike.

Do people really believe that companies would build to those specifications unless they were forced to?? Yes, there are tons of ridiculous wasteful goverment rules. But the libertarian anarchists are just as delusional as the communists. Sanity is in the balance.

Don't assume that because there was minimal destruction that there could not have been - most of it was avoided due to regulation and intervention.

The same people who are going on about a government overreaction would be the first to be screaming about an under reaction if the storm was greater than anticipated. As for the latest earthquake in Hollister, CA everything there that can be shaken down in all probability already has been. Earthquakes are a common occurence there and most of the time they just rattle the teacups.

Lately it seems like the only thing people want to do is complain, so they find whatever they can to complain about.
It's as if no one is thankful for anything good they receive, because there's some convoluted way it could be better.

Yeah, I was listening to people who came home from being evacuated and their houses were fine.

Instead of being overjoyed, it was like they were angry their roof wasn't blown off! There were plenty of roofs that were blown off and damaged and almost all of the people killed were killed because they were out driving.

Part of the other thread about emergency workers, people refuse to evacuate and then they want my husband to risk his life to save theirs. I don't think so.

reminds me of the Katrina debacle. I was sitting here in SE NC watching that thing churn away in the Gulf. And I specifically remember watching the news talk to a mom in a playground with her daughter. And all she said was, "Well, I'll stay here... Don't have anywhere else to go..." I wonder where they are now, if they survived.
They bussed folks out of there. Offered shelters in other states. And they still stayed. Category 3 levys broke when the category 4/5 hurricane came in. Is anyone really surprised? really? And then everyone got mad because folks weren't saved fast enough. The area was told to be evacuated. The affected area was huge. HUGE!

All we can do is prepare the best we can. Over-preparation is better than being caught with your knickers down...

Yeah, because now all thoe New Yorkers who had no damage will stay next time and next time may not be a downgraded storm at the last minute moving faster than expected.

People think storms should be precisely forecast an then they cut funding for the very satellites needed to forecast them..... No, most of the data collection satellites are not owned by news agencies, they're owned by NOAA.

There is a section of our town that floods regularly. The area was on the mitigation list that said it should be purchased and torn down, made into parks or something. But, it remains an apartment complex full of people who don't trust the government. A few hurricanes back social workers were hired so people would at least listen to them tell them to evacuate in three languages. A lot of them didn't. DH ended up in the hospital from hypothermia from trying to rescue a three year old from a flooded basement apartment. He did not succeed and the failure has haunted him for years.

As someone who has had to go out and "clean up" after disasters like this (I was deployed with the National Guard after several disasters) is never fails to break my heart when people don't listen. When they don't employ safety precautions, when they think to themseves "Oh we'll be fine, we don't need to worry.", when they endanger not only themselves, but their children and the lives of rescue workers, when they balk because they are too blasted stubborn to realize that anything tangible in their homes can be replaced but THEY cannot be. Better safe than stupid and very very sorry, or dead. I still feel ill over Katrina and what we saw and had to do afterwards. Even in this storm there are people I personally know who refused to take precautions.